Will anybody pick up the Torch?

[Overcall]

This time of the year, I always looked forward to Stan Bergsteins 3yo pacing and trotting 'experimental' numbers. He will be sorely missed.

[wilderness]

an excerpt from an article on Stan, from the Feb 1994 USTA Hoof Beats:

Experimental Ratings—Bergstein purloined this idea from Thoroughbred racing, and he went to Jim Harrison, the sport's best writer who was on the USTA staff in the mid-1960s, to try the idea out on him. Harrison liked what he heard.

"Good," said Bergstein. "You're the logical guy to do the ratings." "No," demurred Harrison. "You are."

Bergstein relented and says that he got lucky" the first year, when he predicted that Bret Hanover would pace an unprecedented 1:55 mile as a three-year-old. Bret made Bergstein into a prophet when he hit that mark exactly in winning a heat of the Horseman Futurity at Indianapolis.
This year will mark the 30th consecutive year that Bergstein has done the Experimental Ratings, and he always manages to summon forth enthusiasm for this challenging and thankless task. All too often his predictions have been lambasted by owners and trainers who feel that their particular favorite colt has been slighted. Bergstein's standard rejoinder is "Talk to me in the fall."

More often than not, Bergstein's assessment of the colt in question has proven to be more accurate than that of the owner or trainer.
end of quote

Jim Harrison (deceased 2008.)
It's difficult for people today to imagine what a superb writer and statistcian that Jim Harrison was, especially considering it's been the 1960's since we regularly published.

from Feb 2008 Hoof Beats:
James C. “Jim” Harrison, 87, a member of the Communicator’s Corner of the Hall of Fame and perhaps best known for compiling the original edition of The Care and Training of the Trotter and Pacer, died Sept. 4, 2008.

Mr. Harrison’s lengthy career in harness racing included positions as the USTA’s publicity director and as executive editor of Hoof Beats.

He began his duties at the USTA in 1949, but left in 1958 to become the assistant to the president at Hanover Shoe Farms. He returned to the
USTA in 1965, but departed again in 1968 to become the executive vice president and general manager at Lana Lobell Farms. He retired in 1980.

It was during his second stint with the USTA that Mr. Harrison compiled the seminal volume on training, driving and breeding Standardbred horses, which became a runaway bestseller upon its release in 1968.

In 1970, Mr. Harrison won the Proximity Achievement Award from the members of the U.S. Harness Writers Association. He won the Golden Pen Award in 1970, conferred by the North American Harness Publicists Association, and was presented with the Grand Circuit Order of Merit in
1978. In 1986 he was inducted into the Communicator’s Corner of the Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame in Goshen, N.Y.

His first job, following graduation from high school in Port Jervis, N.Y., was as a sports-writing stringer for the Middletown (N.Y.) Times Herald. He later
enlisted in the Army Air Corps during World War II, and earned a Purple Heart and Air medal, with several clusters, while in combat action.

He is survived by a son, John C.; a niece, Mary Clare Decker; a sister, Marjorie Terrill; two grand-children; four great-grandchildren; and an additional four nieces and two nephews. He was preceded in death
by his wife, Margaret Bradenburgh Harrison, whom he married on March 16, 1950, and who died in 2006; two sons, James B. and William E.; a sister, Anne Harrison Fahey; and a brother, John F. Jr.
end of quote

I doubt there's anybody today with the skills or diversity of either of these two gents that would prove successful, while remaining committed to such a long-term task.

There's many people whom could do so on on local jurisdictions, but to do so nationally is another ballgame.